The present invention relates to a vehicle body and, more particularly, to a passenger car body, a front-end engine compartment which can be covered by an engine hood, a passenger cell adjoining the engine compartment and closed off towards an engine hood by a windshield, and an opening extending over the entire width of the vehicle body from a rear edge of the hood facing the windshield up to the windshield. The opening is divided into a water-inlet region, lying direction the windshield, with a water channel arranged thereunderneath for water running off the windshield, and an air-inlet region, lying directly on a rear edge of the engine hood, for an air-supply device for the passenger cell.
In the vehicle body shown in DE 37 36 780 C1, the lower edge of the windshield or front window extends in the transverse direction of the body. A cover strip, which is secured to the windshield by clips arranged at intervals and maintains a distance from the windshield, runs along the lower edge of the windshield. This cover strip separates the two inlet regions for air and water from each other. Outside air is drawn in by a blower of the air-supply device via the air-inlet region, through an air filter located under the engine hood. The separation of the water-inlet and air-inlet region brought about by the cover strip has the effect that water running off over the windshield is no longer whirled up and mixed with the drawn-in outside air. High air humidity has a considerable adverse effect on the service life of activated carbon filters which in many cases are arranged after the air filter in the air-supply device. The air-inlet region is connected directly above the water channel to the water channel so that dripping water, which also penetrates into the air-inlet region via the opening, can flow away via the water channel.
Vehicles are nowadays usually equipped with a window-washing system which, when the driver chooses, sprays washing water onto the windshield by washer jets which are arranged in front of the windshield. To improve the cleaning power and for frost protection a washer concentrate is added to the washing water. If, in the case of the known vehicle body, the washer jets are positioned in the necessary position on the engine hood, alcohol fumes, which emerge from the washer concentrate sprayed onto the windshield, cannot be prevented from entering together with the outside air into the air-supply device and passing into the activated carbon filter, thereby substantially adversely affecting the functionality of the filter.
Such mixing of the alcohol fumes from the window-washing water with the intake air for the air-supply device can, for example, be avoided with a construction described in DE 22 42 107 C2. There, the air-inlet region for the air-supply device is arranged in the rear region of the engine hood, and between the air-inlet region and windshield there is also provided a cowl channel so that the washer jets can be arranged in a front of the cowl channel and behind the air-inlet region. An air-guiding plate, which runs below the engine hood and is secured thereon, forms, together with the engine hood, a first portion of a fresh-air duct, which adjoins the air-inlet region and is connected to a second portion of the fresh-air duct, which portion is constructed below the windshield, by sealing profiles. The engine hood is initially displaced as a whole horizontally in the travel direction, as it is being opened, before being pivoted about its front edge. As a result, the seals, which are secured on the first portion of the fresh-air duct, are raised from the second portion of the fresh-air duct and are pressed on again during the corresponding closing movement. This construction is very complex from the manufacturing point of view and, because of the seals required between the two portions of the fresh-air duct on the movable engine hood and-on the fixed body part, also requires a complicated pivoting mechanism for the engine hood.
An object of the present invention is to solve, in a vehicle body, the problem of preventing alcohol fumes from the window-washing water from being drawn in through the air-supply device, in a constructionally simple manner, and to provide a configuration which is cost-effective also from the manufacturing point of view.
The foregoing object has been achieved in accordance with the present invention in a vehicle body in which the air-inlet region is comprised of the inlet of a closed air-water channel having a connection for an air-supply apparatus, and by a water outlet, whereby the air-water channel is secured in the engine compartment at a distance from the windshield such that, on the side lying opposite the windshield, the air-water channel bounds a wiper recess accommodating wiper arms with wiper blades in a storage position thereof. An opening of the recess constitutes the water-inlet region and the bottom of which forms the water channel, and washer jets are arranged on a channel wall, which bounds the wiper recess of the air-water channel at least near to the upper boundary edge of the inlet of the air-water channel.
The air-water channel according to the present invention is fixed on the engine-compartment side and renders unnecessary any seal between the air-intake or air-inlet region, on one hand, and the engine hood on the other hand. Thus, the engine hood can be provided with a simple pivoting mechanism and does not send any horizontal displacement. The inlet region for the outside air lies, in the travel direction of the vehicle, in front of the wiper recess, which surrounds the water-inlet region, and in front of the washer jets, which are arranged directly on the opening edge of the wiper recess. The inlet region for the outside air thus lies a long way from the windshield and also in front of the washer jets so that alcohol fumes, emerging from the washing water flowing off over the windshield, do not reach the region of the intake air and hence do not enter into the air-supply device.
The air-water channel can advantageously be produced in one piece and preferably as a blow-molded plastic part, and is thus a simple and cost-effective component from the manufacturing point of view. As a constructional unit, which is closed on all sides and has an inlet for the outside air and a connection for the air-supply device, as well as a water outlet, the air-water channel can be accommodated in a problem-free manner in the engine compartment without a risk of polluted air or gases from the engine compartment entering into the air-supply device. The washer jets, which are integrated into the inlet of the air-water channel, can easily be installed and maintained. The hoses to the washer jets can be installed in the engine compartment, to reduce their length and the risk of them freezing up.